Timaeus was never supposed to be the Baron of Eubocris and head of the Valaoritis family. As the second son of a minor Baron, his future was supposed to be one with the military and assisting his older brother, Nicomedes, until he met an untimely, but honorable, death on the battlefield like the all younger Valaoritis boys were supposed to do. Timaeus didn’t expect anything else, after all, this is what they have done for years and his family only had Eubocris. There was nothing left, but the military for younger spares like him.



That was until it was his brother who met their untimely demise.



Two summers ago, Nicomedes collapsed and couldn’t be revived, leaving his little brother the Baron of Eubocris; a position he neither wanted nor was prepared for. It took a while, but this former party animal and bloodthirsty Captain has cleaned up his act… for the most part. To the everyday citizen of Eubocris, he presents himself as a stoic man, who is both intends on bringing Eubocris to a state of glory as well as crack down any dissent with the Valaoritis based on old --and new-- rumors. Ruthless. Emotionless. Determined. He needs to be the leader that they need, even if he wasn’t the one they expected.



What nobody knows though, is that behind closed doors, Timaeus is quite a different man. He’s struggling with his newfound responsibilities and is just one misstep away from crumbling. But he buries the stress and grief deep within him so no one can see. Or at least that’s what he thinks he’s doing. His frequent emotional outbursts and trips to Megaris have not gone unnoticed. He has grown paranoid, fed from the whispers on the streets of the legends surrounding his family’s traitorous way of gaining the barony and the distrust from the people that come with it; plus it doesn’t hurt that two years on, there are many people in Eubocris who are convinced that Nicomedes was poisoned and it was his younger brother who did it. He can’t hide his loathing for the people who he is honor-bound to protect, but who also call for his death just for having the misfortune of being a dead baron’s younger brother and a Valaoritis at that.



None of that even touches upon the responsibilities of being the head of the Valaoritis; also something he was not prepared for. Now it’s up to him to take care of his ailing mother; arrange the future of his cousin, a young girl with a dead priestess for a mother and no one for a father; and somehow rein in his wild younger brother who downs his grief in a bottle and the bed of a woman of the night… a coping mechanism his older brother knows all too well.



His facade is cracking.



It’s only a matter of time before it shatters completely.